Breakdown
by Yaoimelody
Summary: Eventual Self-centeredShipping. For so long Garmadon carried mental baggage, especially from more traumatic experiences... It all gets better in the end, right?


The woman in the living room looked around sharply, as if she was in need to find something. Shoving a lock of the curly brunet hair behind a pale ear, she slammed her fist onto the taller table, finding the vase broken beside it in the first place. Baring spotless teeth, she knew the culprit. Wu had been playing around the area earlier, and she figured he should get a punishment for breaking such a painfully expensive item. Spinning around, she called out his name.

Anger whipped across the hallway, slapping the brothers fiercely. Finally off of his bed rest for the time being, Garmadon winced. Being older, he felt the protective instinct to help the younger. The pain circulating his poison-tainted body paled as his nerves to stand up to their mother came into play. Storming down the hallway, the chocolate-haired went up to her, Wu too scared to say anything.

Her mouth twitched, "I asked for your brother."

His stance didn't even sway, "What did he do?"

Intrigued that she was challenged, the adult pointed at the vase broken in two. Knowing that her husband wasn't here to come to their rescue, she smirked, "Fine… If he won't get punished, then you will."

As she brought down a slap, he got out of the way. Irked, she tried over and over, hating his newfound speed. He turned to face the shocked blond, "Go to our room, Wu." He didn't need to speak twice, the quivering form left as fast as possible. It caused him to not sense the next blow across the side of his head. His ear rang as he slowly reached a hand to soothe it, but she snatched his wrist and forced the boy to follow after her into the kitchen.

She slammed him into the dining table, his ribs protesting at the impact he couldn't control. It turned out she was trying to get him to fall, since when she let go he fell to the wooden flooring. His eyes began to form tears, "This isn't fair, and Wu just broke a vase. Something that can get replaced." It was left off that if he kept taking all the hits for the both of them, he couldn't get truly replaced.

"Well, at least the mistake won't be around much longer," she hummed crudely. It shocked Garmadon how his own mother would do this. He knew his father wasn't the most loyal, but what sort of monster would act like this to children? Suddenly his chest lit up under his kimono, the stinging causing him to whimper. Finding her "teachings" weren't causing this; it made her angrier, "This is your fault, Garmadon. Maybe if you weren't so headstrong, we wouldn't have to deal with this sort of thing."

"You?" The younger brunet coughed out, against his better judgment, "I'm the one who has to deal with this!" Along with the pain on the side of his face and ribs, the markings making a home on his graying skin were making it hard to not break down in a fit of tears and confusion. He had to take the steam for Wu, not even daring to let the other in on how bad it could get. Tensing and hoping for mercy, he found that instead his mother was crying too.

Her face contorted, and she shook her head slowly, "I'm- I'm so sorry, baby!" She dropped to her knees and hugged him gingerly to her chest.

'Another day, another personality,' thought Garmadon icily. Squirming away from her shaken body, he trailed down the hall slowly. Thankfully his father arrived just in time for his mother to stop in her tracks. He moved through the sliding open door to reach the sleeping bag-like bed of theirs. To prevent any more screaming in night, the Spinjitsu instructor allowed the brothers to keep sharing a room. Wu just went the extra mile to keep them as close as possible by abandoning his bed in favor for them to share one instead.

Wu's quivering form under the Asian-themed blanket caused Garmadon to immediately soften and tug it down so he could go under it as well. The blond quickly hugged around his neck with spindly arms, "Are you okay, Brother?"

Shrugging gently, the future dark lord stared up at the ceiling. He put his lithe arms over the blanket so he could protectively hold onto his sibling as well. His hazel eyes tried to make out shapes as the dark from the outside swirled inside the room. Garmadon found it getting easier by the second, but Wu looked a little worried, "What?"

Visibly gulping, "Oh, um, your eyes… They're turning red…" Before it could really sink in with the older, he looked at the pretty fabric bunched around the other's elbows, but then he peered closer at the many different sorts of scarring lines, "Are you okay?"

Finding that his secret was being found out, he quickly made sure to shuck the sleeves back over the pasty skin, "What do you mean? I'm perfectly alright."

"Did Mother hurt you with the broken vase, or something?" The vocals went down to a nearly inaudible decibel.

Deciding to go along with that theory rather than the truth, "Sure."

It was left at that, but the brothers trusted one another. Wu later figured out the truth, and felt terrible for bringing it up like that. Garmadon just replied with how he didn't want anyone to know, but he figured it would eventually happen.

["One thing you can't hide… is when you're crippled inside." ― John Lennon]

Peering around thoughtfully, Garmadon found it was completely empty, or so he figured. Nodding to himself, the adult slid down the wall and eventually fell to a sitting position. Looking either way, he felt tears begin to cloud his vision, just begging to escape. Blinking at last, they made clear, wet trails down his cheeks. Just because he was now considered to be on the "good side", didn't mean he would automatically get used to it. It wasn't fair to see Wu surrounded by kindness no matter what, but Garmadon had to scrape and scrounge most his life.

Rolling up the airy kimono sleeves, he looked over his faint scar. Over the years, they all succumbed to be pale and awkwardly placed. He couldn't dare try wearing anything to show his arms, especially when it would be sunny outside and it would cause his gleaming pale- not like all those times sunbathing worked- skin to shock just about anyone. They were shallow cuts some place, but they did get deeper the more frustrated he had gotten. No use passing them off as markings left over…

"Dad?" Garmadon peered up to find his son was indeed home in the dojo. The blond sat down next to him. Noticing the many self-harm incidents were on display, Lloyd scooted closer to him and hugged him sweetly, "It's okay."

The man shrugged lightly, but then gave a slightly twisted chuckle, "Remember when you first saw them and thought I had too many paper cuts?" Even the wince didn't stop him, "I went along with it because I knew it was a way for you to understand… I stopped for what I thought was for good when I saved you from that burning village… Which I started."

Lloyd stiffened in his hug, since he was never told that bit of information…

"I felt complete at last, having a child to look after and to distract me!" Shifting so he sat up better the adult stared directly at the teenager, "Then I sent you off to that boarding school when you were… physically ten." Looks like it would take so much longer to get used to this age jump then they figured. "I was all alone yet again, so… You can imagine the rest there…"

The green ninja didn't let the hazel eyes leave his baby blues, "Then you should get help! Find something that won't leave you alone for very long, if ever."

"I have," hummed the man, physically in his forties, "I officially stopped since I found Dareth."

At the last of the statement, said man awkwardly walked in the back door with a load of bags of groceries, "What about me?" Looking between them leaning the kitchen wall, the dojo owner shrugged to himself. Placing the plastic bags on the circular table, the brunet cleared his throat, "I need help putting these away, guys."

That got them out of their situation by helping the maternal figure out, but it always seemed to happen like that lately. Maybe… Dareth was the actual missing puzzle piece for the Garmadon family. Some people gave the couple odd looks or questioned why or how it could even begin, but the blond knew deep down they couldn't be more made for one another. The wedding would make everything official. They helped each other to not be so… self-centered.

((A/N: Yay, I've had this idea for so long... You have no idea xD I also have a Twitter now? What do you do on it? I'm thinking of having people make suggestions to me or something? I'll put the username on my profile or... Haha xD))


End file.
